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HEI 12(21): The satellite which is to be built by Estonian university students might take off as early as the end of 2011.

The Estonian student satellite which is to take-off in order that it can enter Earth orbit in only a couple of years will probably be the first machine to be sent into space that will be using the main components of the electrical solar sail which has been developed by the Finns.

According to Mart Noorma, the academic advisor of the Estonian Student Satellite programme and the leader of the Space and Military Technology workgroup at the University of Tartu, this project which has been initiated by Estonian students is the first step towards the creation of the fastest spaceship in the world.

"If this is not a great challenge then what is?" Noorma asks. One of the things the creators of the student satellite wish to do is to show the youth of Estonia that there are more than enough opportunities to do great things even in such a tiny country as Estonia. "It is commonly believed that great things are done only in the United States. We wish to show that a lot can be done in Estonia as well. Even great and extraordinary things," Noorma explains.

Silver Lätt, the physics post-graduate who is studying at the University of Tartu and who is also the brains behind the Estonian Student Satellite project, says that physics students from the University of Tartu came up with the idea of building a satellite a few years ago. "A great will to do something innovative overcame us. We wanted to do something crazy and unheard-of and although our resources were limited, we decided to build a satellite," Silver Lätt says, explaining how the Estonian Student Satellite programme was born.

A year ago there were only a few students of physics at the University of Tartu who were dreaming about the building of a satellite, but today a couple of dozen students and scientists have joined the ESTCube programme. Students from the Tallinn University of Technology have come in to lend their hands to the Tartu students as well and, according to the latest news, students from the Estonian Aviation Academy have also joined the project. Silver Lätt confirms that the building of the satellite has now developed into an international project, which means that students from abroad are helping out as well and English has become the working language of the project team.

"For instance, the cubesat project manager at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, located in Germany, joined the project for six months with the aim of both helping us as well as broadening his own horizons," Lätt says, highlighting an example of the internationalisation of the satellite programme. Estonians themselves have not taken the step of helping out other people who are engaged in the building of student satellites but a number of students from the University of Tartu are studying at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Once they return to Estonia, they will have the chance to put their theoretical and practical knowledge into use by joining the student satellite project.

When the wider public heard about the Estonian Student Satellite programme for the first time in the summer of 2008, the group of people who were engaged in building the satellite did not even know what the satellite was going to be doing in orbit. Jokingly, someone came up with the idea that the satellite should be supplied with a transmitter so that it could play the songs of the Eurovision Song Contest out loud in space.

Since then, however, a purpose has been found for the satellite. In cooperation with the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the satellite builders have stated that they wish us at ESTCube to test the main components of the electrical solar sail for the first time in the world.

"The goal of our satellite is to help the Finns test the components of a new type of locomotive principle - that of an electrical solar sail," Lätt explains. Up to now, Finns have been testing their technology only on Earth but should their technology work in space as well, it might be the beginning of an era of space shuttles that can travel much faster than the ones that have been used up to now.

According to Lätt, the new technology should enable spaceships that are built in the future to travel in space at a speed of 50km per second. "And such spaceships will be travelling by using practically no energy at all," Lätt adds. However, the new technology needs solar energy. "But this would be a truly revolutionary way for getting about both within our solar system and, in the future, beyond it as well."

Until now, only the Voyager satellites have been able to travel beyond the borders of our solar system and even those ambassadors took decades to get so far. The new technology would enable spaceships to reach such distances four times faster. However, it will take a couple of years for us to find out whether this innovative solar sail can actually work in space.

Today, the Estonian Student Satellite programme which consists of seven phases is only at the end of the first phase, meaning that both the mission and the criteria for success have been defined. The team is planning to launch the actual building process as early as next year. According to the plan, the satellite will be sent off into space at the end of 2011 or at the beginning of 2012. Silver Lätt says that sending the satellite into space depends mostly on how the European Space Agency manages to put its new carrier rocket into use. "Everything depends on whether the European Space Agency manages to put its new carrier rocket, named Vega, into use. But Vega should be ready for takeoff by the end of this year," Lätt tells us.

What the satellite builders have on paper today is a pretty detailed description of how to make the different systems of the satellite work. Burning or hypergolic fuels are not allowed to be used in student satellites and the installation of rocket engines onto student satellites is also prohibited. Therefore, the students needed to think hard about finding a solution to the difficult problem of how to make the satellite work.

According to Silver Lätt the pull between Earth's magnetic field and the satellite, and the power of solar energy itself will be used for rotating the satellite. "If our satellite has a magnet inside it will either push itself away from or pull itself nearer to the Earth's magnetic field according to what we tell it to do, and this will enable us to set its course once it is up there in space," Lätt explains.

Erik Kulu, a student of physics who is studying at the University of Tartu, says that the energy being produced by the sun will help to keep the satellite functional. The satellite will be powered by batteries that get their energy from the sun. One of these batteries costs approximately one thousand British pounds sterling (£1,000). Unfortunately, ordinary batteries simply do not work in space.

Although the building of a rocket that will weigh only about one kilogram cannot be exactly called cheap - the satellite which is to be built by Estonians will probably cost slightly less than one million Estonian kroons - the financial aid that has been received from different projects will cover most of the costs.

Lätt believes that the entire Student Satellite programme is a true example of the innovative and enterprising spirit of Estonians. "The students themselves will do all the work concerning the building of the satellite and we alone are responsible for applying for financial aid as well," he says. "This is a sufficiently multi-faceted project since it will be the basis on which several graduation theses will be written and it is something that will also help students to make several new contacts with other cubesat builders and the representatives of space agencies all over the world."

Therefore, the main goal of sending the student satellite into space is not in managing to get it into the orbit since, in reality, what is important is the knowledge, skills and experience received from participating in the programme. "Our goal is to educate a new generation of innovative Estonians who could be employed by the space sector in the future - just one instance of what they could achieve," Lätt says.

Although the first Estonian student satellite has not even taken off yet, the students are already making plans for building the next one.

There are a couple of dozen student satellites in orbit

According to Silver Lätt, a post-graduate of physics who is studying at the University of Tartu and who is the leader of the Estonian Students Satellite project, the worldwide student satellite programme was initiated by the students themselves.

"The student satellite programme has developed into a large-scale undertaking that has participants all over the world. The CubeSat standard is managed by the California Polytechnic State University (www.cubesat.org). This project has become one of the ways in which a satellite can be sent into orbit by using limited resources or, in other words, cheaply." Lätt explains. However, a student satellite needs to conform to certain standards so that space agencies or private companies from different countries will allow student satellites to be installed in their carrier rockets. One of the main standards is the standard regarding the size of the satellite which means that a student satellite may not weigh more than one kilogram and all the satellite's side panels need to be ten centimetres long.

Today, there are about twenty student satellites revolving around the planet in orbit. According to Katrin Tuude, a student of physics who is studying at the University of Tartu, there should be even more satellites of this nature in orbit but not all attempts to send them into space have been successful. "For instance, a couple of years ago a carrier rocket which had fourteen student satellites on board exploded," Tuude says. For this reason, the Estonian students need to keep in mind the fact that the programme does not end with their building of the satellite. They also need to have a little bit of luck when they send their satellite into space.

Those student satellites that are already spinning around the Earth have quite different functions. For instance, there are satellites that are programmed to carry out remote sensing or, in other words, to photograph the Earth or the atmosphere from space. There are also satellites that monitor ships from space and try to predict earthquakes. The Cubans, for example, have sent something into space that plays the Cuban national anthem out loud.

The idea behind the Estonian Student Satellite:

The Estonian Student Satellite project began in the summer of 2008 at the University of Tartu, when it had the aim of promoting knowledge regarding space technology. The project is an invaluable educational tool for the subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and it gives the students involved a practical experience in the development of Estonia's space technology. In addition, the longer-term goal of the satellite builders is to develop the Estonian space industry by training experts and sharing space technology-related knowledge. The satellite builders also hope that the satellite project will have a significant role to play in educating the wider public and in raising the awareness of space research.

At the same time, the project has developed into a full-scale cooperation project between the students from the University of Tartu, from the Tallinn University of Technology and from the Estonian Aviation Academy. The project has become international since the experiment is being coordinated by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

At present, when the second phase of the project, Phase A, comes to an end, a total of seven bachelor and master theses are being written about the satellite's subsystems.

SOURCE: www.estcube.eu